1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer-implemented control of dedicated hardware, and in particular relates to real-time computer control of the operation of analytical and diagnostic instrumentation.
2. Description of Background Art
Conventional analytical and diagnostic instrumentation is not designed to evaluate incoming data and implement modifications to operational parameters in real time, i.e., during the collection of such data by the instruments. Typically, a human operator must periodically analyze the incoming data, and, if the incoming data does not meet the operator's expectations regarding the characteristics of data to be received, the operator must reprogram the instrumentation, restart the data acquisition process, and continue to periodically monitor the values of incoming data. This has resulted in very inefficient operation of such instrumentation, which has required multiple restarts of the data gathering process before all data of interest is obtained.
One such known analytical system combines tandem mass spectrometry with on-line liquid chromatography for the analysis of complex biological samples. Such a system generates massive amounts of data which are dealt with using large-scale post acquisition data processing systems based on a "collect-everything-and-sort-it-out-later" approach. While this approach may be economically feasible from a computing power and data storage capacity point of view, it fails to address the following important factors:
The quality of experimental results is directly related to the expertise of the individuals performing the experiments. This relationship is even more significant as the complexity of analytical techniques increases. As a consequence, operators with less than expert level knowledge tend to overlook important information needed to determine the optimal course of a complex analysis.
There is generally a significant gap between problem domain expertise and instrument operation expertise. Experts involved in biological analysis must translate their analytical goals into low-level instrument control commands that may be unfamiliar to them. Conversely, experts in instrument operation may perform incomplete or inadequate experiments because of an insufficient understanding of the information that is necessary to achieve the analytical goals.
Instruments that are physically coupled to perform tandem separations are not logically linked to interact effectively and efficiently toward the solution of problems.